This article is meant to give ideas about how a book group for kids might work at your library, and also to share things we learned in the process, and some mistakes we made, to help others who might be thinking about starting, or in the planning stages of, a new book club program. We have two summers experience with a boy's book club, and one summer with a girl's club, not all that much you might think, but it's amazing what you'll learn in just one season!

At our library these programs were half book groups and half activity clubs. Boys and girls had their own groups. Each group met once per week for eight weeks in the summer. We alternated with book discussion nights and planned activity nights, beginning with a book discussion on the first meeting to set the tone (and convey the idea that our primary focus was books and reading.) By only having a book discussion every other meeting, kids had two weeks to read each new book, an important point for including weaker readers. Ages of participants were 9-12 for the girl's group and 10 to 14 for the boys. Our primary goal with both groups was to encourage involvement with books, and secondarily (but also importantly) to bring kids together in a group where they could make new friends and socialize at the library. We put a high value on building community in our library. We hoped by meeting eight times, rather than just four for the book discussions, that the kids would have enough time together to develop a group identity, a small community if you will, a club feel. We had good participation for both the boy's and girl's groups, and good feedback from parents and kids. We also made some mistakes, and heard about it, as you'll see below.

We received many benefits from running the summer book clubs. First, we got to know many new kids and parents and strengthened bonds with those we already knew. This was a "feel good" and easily visible benefit, with us coming away from the experience feeling that the time we had spent was well worth the effort. Secondly, we heard from some parents that their kids did much more reading over the summer as a result of the clubs, and that the books they read in the clubs stretched their reading and thinking skills. We felt great about that and realized that we had met our primary goal. Third, we sent a strong message to the community that we value and support reading for kids (especially for boys, in an area where reading is still seen by many residents as unmanly.) You might think this is obvious for libraries, but we sent the message with these programs that we cared enough to do something about it. Fourth, we built visibility and branding for the library with this program. We had publicity and great pictures in the local newspaper, an email praising our program to the chairman of the county Board of Supervisors (thanking him for supporting the library's funding), and lot's of "word of mouth" publicity about the library from families involved. Fifth, we raised good will with appreciative families and provided summertime fun for kids in our community. Lastly, staff and volunteers also read new childrens books as a result of being involved with the programs and got a better feel for what books work for what ages.

Here are some tips based on what we learned:

Pick a catchy name that will "stick" for your club

Kitschy, funny, or retro, are good. If you pick a creature or person name, the kids can become known individually and collectively by that name and that encourages a group identity. Picking something that can at least be reduced to a one word name makes it easier to refer to the group and encourages use of the name. If your club catches on, the name can actually become a form of "branding" for your library, and this is good!, plus it will help to advertise the program. Our boy's group name is "The Book Sharks of Greene County Library", which instantly became reduced to just the "Sharks", and has been a hit. Our girl's group name is simply "The Rapunzels", which has also worked really well. Every little girl likes to picture herself as a lovely maiden with a long braid sequestered in a tower, about to be rescued by a handsome prince. But, in a twist on the tale, in the advertising flyer for the group (and in the wiki that we started as a group project JMRL Reads ) Rapunzel in her tower is busy reading, and has no time for the prince below. The girls loved that, and being known as a "Rapunzel" caught right on. Funnily enough, by complete serendipity, nearly every book we read had a girl with either very long hair, or a long braid, with the hair somehow figuring in the story. On one of the activity nights (we were doing a hemp string knotting project and I mentioned that the way you needed to hold your fingers was kind of like when you're french braiding hair) I ended up french braiding nearly every girl's hair in the group. Much merriment ensued as the girls realized they really were "Rapunzels" indeed.

Consider having separate groups for boys and girls

While there are, of course, books that are good for boys and girls both, we felt that the reading interests of boys and girls are pretty different, that discussion styles would be different for boys and girls, and the activities each would be interested in would be different too. We also felt that the kids could be themselves more easily in a single sex group, without the tension of competing with each other, and without the distraction of pre-adolescent sexual interest as well. Bonding and group identity are helped at this age by having separate sex groups in my opinion. Since we don't have any males on staff at my library we found two adult men who were willing to lead the boy's group. This has worked out great, with the same two guys leading the boy's group for two summers now, and already agreeing to continue on next summer. Need I say that it is greatly preferable that boy's groups be led by men? Our message was that "guys read" and we couldn't convey that without male leaders.

Have more than one leader and don't hesitate to use volunteers

We had a staff person leave less than a month before our girl's group was to start, and of course, that staff person was one of two leaders and planners of the girl's book club. We have a small staff at my branch, so I found a volunteer in our community that I knew well (and who had a daughter signed up for the group) to be my new partner (I was the other leader/planner). When it turned out that due to vacation plans (and other exigencies of life) she would be forced to miss several meetings, I found yet another volunteer (a reading teacher in the local elementary school that I also knew well) to include as a leader for the group. That turned out to be a very happy development, since the second volunteer turned out to be perfect for the job, and had a wonderful time doing it. If you can manage it, having multiple leader/planners is a really good idea. If someone gets sick, or needs to be gone, you still have someone to lead the group, and having multiple adults takes the pressure of planning and leading activities and book discussions off the shoulders of just one person. In book discussions, it's very helpful to have more than one adult to keep the discussion going; if there's a dead spot, and one leader is momentarily at a loss, the other can step in. Multiple heads are very useful when picking books for the group as well, and with activities you'll have more ideas, more talent, and more help on activity nights. Plus, it's a lot more fun for the leaders to have adult partners. Using volunteers, along with staff, builds relationships between adults in your community and the library--always a good thing. Our book group volunteers have become library "super-friends" and indispensable to our programs.